Digimon Souls
by Firehedgehog
Summary: Now that they have more time to plan, Protoman and his friends are interrupted by the arrival of two unexpected guests and their digimon... where do they come from? and why are they here? sidestory to 'A Robots Soul' chapter thirteen
1. Chapter Two

This is a co-written fic, the fics converging are 'A Robot's Soul' and 'Digital souls'. I hope you enjoy this, especially since both have huge fan followings. Before you read it, read chapter Thirteen of 'a robots soul' where the side story takes place.

Crossover with 'Digital Souls' by WandererD

Digimon Souls

By Wanderer D and Firehedgehog

Chapter 1

They say there are a million different timelines out there... alternate universes... time travel… the works. Now, let's enter two such worlds. Where so many things lead up to many things, in fact... where Robots have souls.

-

The gate flashed with a golden-blue light, shimmering in the metallic threshold, through it, the other side of the lab could be seen, rippling behind the liquid-like surface.

Gabumon looked doubtfully from it to Dr. Cain, while Robinmon jumped back, startled.

"Are you sure that is safe?" the fur-covered Digimon asked.

"Well..." Dr. Cain started. "It should. I have been experimenting along with Gennai for a while and the theory is sound."

"This will let us visit many other worlds that are connected to the Digital World, right?" Zero asked, poking the surface with his finger.

Dr. Cain nodded. "Yes. Right now I have redirected it to another server in the Digital World. A server that has been closed to Gennai since the Dark Masters attacked."

Black Peregrine nodded, placing a calming hand on Robinmon's shoulder. "So, why are we doing this?" she asked.

Dr. Cain coughed. "That is... well, we have detected a similar space/time fluctuation to the one we create here in that area... and it is time we sent someone to investigate."

"So, who else is coming?" Zero asked. "X?"

Dr. Cain shook his head. "No... He's in New York with Mimi helping her with some trouble."

Zero nodded. "Well, then." he said, nodding to the others. "Let's go!"

-

It was a beautiful day, the sky was blue... birds sang... not even a sign of a cloud in the sky.

'Now this is nice' a crimson eyed teen thought, of course this was not a human teen... in fact this was a very advanced robot known as Protoman. At the moment he was in civilian form so was called Takato at the moment.

His scarf fluttered in a light wind, a smile crept to his face.

He hadn't been able to enjoy freedom like while under Wily's control; he enjoyed this so much.

At that moment a strange wind passed over the area, if his body had nerves they would have tingled with nervous energy.

"What in the world is going on?" he questioned.

At that moment a large boom filled eth air, the air pressure was so great Takato felt: as if he was getting hit by some great force. He stared at the sky in shock, as it seemed to ripple, at that moment he knew something had gone wrong.

'I better talk to Doctor Light about this' he thought, with that Takato got up and ran towards the light lab.

-

"You've got to be joking," Takato said wide eyed, in front of him Dr. Light sat in front of the computer. On it were very strange readings, but Takato being the intelligent robot he was recognized at least some of what was being shown.

"It's true, it is a space/time fluctuation. In fact, two of them have happened in a very short time... that is why it felt so strong… it made a ripple in the fabric of our universe," Dr. Light explained, Takato sighed.

"Great," he groaned, Rock a.k.a. Megaman looked at this bewildered.

"What exactly is going on?" Rock asked confused, Takato decided to explain.

"A space/time fluctuation means that someone either from the future, an alternate universe or an alternate future has come to our world. We don't know what they are here for, or how powerful they are… in all it means trouble," Takato explained, Rock sighed.

"Just when I thought we might get a break from battles," the smaller robot replied.

"Trouble, there is a riot down town," Dr. Light suddenly called, the two robots traded looks.

"Were on our way," Rock said, in a flash of light Megaman and Protoman stood there. Then they rushed away… battle on the horizon.

-

After a sudden flash, the group found themselves standing on the top of a building.

"Strange..." Peregrine said, looking down at the distant street. "This place looks just like home, Zero."

"Yes... it does." Zero said. "We should take civilian forms." he said, looking at her. "People here will probably don't know us."

Black Peregrine, the third and last member of Zero's Special Hunter Unit nodded and gave the mental command. The stylized bird-like helm disappeared, letting long brown hair fall down to her waist, her shiny black armor and blaster seemed to melt in the light, transforming into blue jeans and a black tank top. Soon, only her black metallic wings were the only indication that she was not human, but with another thought, they shrank onto her back, until they looked more like a decoration than an actual pair of wings. The teenage girl stretched and smiled.

With a flash of light, Zero transformed into a 16 year old looking young man with blonde hair. A green t-shirt, blue jeans and red tennis-shoes replaced the rust-red amour.

Jessie; walked up to Matt and took his arm, smiling at him and looking at his blue eyes steadily. "Shall we go?"

Matt couldn't help but blush. "Sure… eh, when did you…"

Jessie kissed him on the cheek and pulled him towards the stairs. "Like the new clothes? I went shopping with Sora the other day to Nerima."

Robinmon glared at her friend's back. "Grrr... she should take her hands of MY Zero!" she growled, then noticed that Gabumon was looking at her with obvious amusement. She blushed, her dark beak showing a little rosy color. "Stop looking at me!" she said harshly to Gabumon, before running after her.

Gabumon chuckled as he trotted after them. "Heh, she never changes..."

They walked through the city without incident. Most people tended to ignore Digimon if they were carried like dolls. A fact for which both, Matt and Jessie were thankful.

They had taken a bus to have a general idea of where they were and were surprised at the similarities with their world.

"Let's get out here…" Matt said, as the bus made a stop.

They stepped out and took a look around, following Matt's eyes as they followed up a couple of huge buildings. "This is the first change I have seen so far…" Matt explained. "Back home these are office buildings for a law firm… here they belong to a group called Yagami…" he said, looking at a sign made in granite next to the main doors.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any..." Gabumon started to say when an explosion rocked the whole street. "...trouble..."

Matt clenched his teeth and ran towards the smoking building against a tide of people that wanted to get out, followed closely by the others. When he got to the building he stopped.

-

Gutsman walked out of the experimental facilities with a large metallic crate in his arms, kicking some debris out of the way.

"Well that was easy..." Shadowman said following him with Toadman. "We should get out of here before those two idiots, Protoman and Megaman come back."

Toadman slammed his fist against his palm. "I wouldn't mind a go at that traitor!"

"Then, why don't you have a go at me, Maverick?" a voice said.

The three robots turned around and stared at the two kids and their small pets.

"You've got to be joking." Shadowman snorted.

The boy smiled at them in a very sinister way. With a small shudder, and telling himself they weren't running away, Gutsman nudged Toadman. "Hey. Let's leave."

"You're not going anywhere." The boy replied. And then, the girl jumped very high into the air.

The three robots knew they were in trouble when metallic black wings grew from her back and a dark swirl of energy covered her body.

Bellow her, the boy was also covered in light.

The two little pets also glowed.

"Gabumon shinka!" the reptile-dog mix thing cried out, suddenly becoming light. "Metal Garurumon!" the cry was a much deeper voice and the light coalesced into a huge armored wolf that would make Rush cringe with envy.

The small bird also fluttered up and became light. "Robinmon, shinka!" when the light faded, in her place was a larger much fiercer looking bird with huge red wings with red and white feathers and golden pinions. "Uketsumon!"

Gutsman let the crate fall while Toadman and Shadowman traded worried looks. "Uh-oh…" Toadman muttered.

Zero smiled as he saw the Mavericks cringe in fear. With a flick of his wrist his sword hummed into life. "Let's hunt!"

Toadman didn't even have time to blink when something smashed against him, dragging him across the street and slamming him against a nearby building. His systems registered major damage to his chest, and he looked down in a daze, where two claw marks had torn pieces of his armor as if it was made of paper. Small sparks flew out as he looked at his aggressor.

Black Peregrine looked at him coldly, her clawed gauntlets crunching the pieces of armor in them into small, crumpled metal bits. Despite the attractive feminine figure she posed such a danger to him that he was terrified. With a desperate lunge, he shouted his attack. "Acid Rain!"

Gutsman snapped back to reality when he heard Toadman's shout. He saw the female robot dodging away from the deadly acid. Her back was to him, so he picked up the crate and was about to throw it at her when a tap on his shoulder made him turn.

"And what were you planning to do with that?" Zero asked.

In a rage, Gutsman tried to smash the smaller robot with the crate, but to his surprise, Zero stopped the crate's descent with his bare hands. "I don't think so." The red armored Reploid growled.

Surprised and afraid, Gutsman gathered his courage and pushed down. "No one is as strong as I am!" he growled back. "I will crush you!"

Zero smiled as he applied force to the crate. In moments, they both could hear crunches and small electric snaps inside as the whole thing was crushed between the force of the two. Despite his predicament, Gutsman was impressed.

Shadowman jumped back, barely avoiding a lighting bolt coming from the strange bird, but he was tackled by the wolf. The huge beast put a paw on his chest and growled very close to his face.

It was then that he took stock of the situation. Toadman was being pummeled into a wall by the girl robot, as pools of acid melted the street around them. He could hear the crunch of metal and hardware breaking each time the fists smashed into the poor Robot Master. He cringed when a particularly vicious punch tore Toadman's arm off.

The red bird also cringed and looked away, while the wolf switched his gaze to the black robot with a worried frown.

Shadowman risked a look at Gutsman and wished he hadn't. The red robot had started using his light saber with deadly efficiency, and the only thing that remained now was a giant, slightly sparkling, ice cube where Gutsman silhouette could be made out inside.

When Toadman's scream followed by an explosion distracted the wolf enough, he rolled out of the way and made a run for it, melting into the shadows before they could catch him. He risked a look behind and noticed that the wolf and the bird had noticed, but were not doing anything to catch him. He put them out of his mind as he started transmitting back to base. Dr. Wily would not be happy about this.

Zero's sword hummed for a few more seconds then died down as he turned it off. "Well THAT was easy." he said, kicking the remains of Toadman's leg out of the way.

"Well..." Metal Garurumon said, looking at the destroyed street. "Yes... it was... but, don't you think you overdid it a little?" he cringed when the wall of the building in front crumbled to dust burying most of the remains of Toadman.

Zero smiled sheepishly, while Robinmon, back in her rookie form hugged him and glared at the other Digimon. "Zero was only doing his job!" she complained. "Isn't it right, Zero?" she cooed.

Metal Garurumon smiled. "Sure, sure," He said and de-evolved back into his Gabumon form. He was more worried about Peregrine right now.

"We have more Reploids coming our way!" Black Peregrine warned suddenly.

Zero had picked up Gutsman's head and was holding it in consideration when he saw the two arrivals. He threw the head over his shoulder, where it bounced against a wall and rolled down an alley.

-

As soon as they came upon the scene, Protoman had to blink… in fact he saw Megaman was in the same way. In front of them; was a carnage of robotic bodies, a crumbled wall… and in the middle of it were unknown figures.

"Holy robotic parts," Megaman said with a whistle, this was just over kill.

"This can't be good," Protoman said, he especially didn't like the look of the blood robot… what was it with all the hair anyway.

"Why… why did you destroy them in such a way!" Megaman demanded, he had quickly recovered from shock and moved on to a bit of anger.

The unknown blinked, it was then that Protoman noticed the Digimon in the group.

'A Gabumon, something is going on... something isn't right here?' he thought confused.

-

Zero looked at Megaman and blink-blinked, then shook his head. "Great. A whiner." he said, with a groan, and then turned to look carefully at the red and grey Reploid. "Either way, you have two options, Mavericks, surrender or follow the path of Ice-cube and Lego here."

Taking her cue, Black Peregrine jumped into the air, opening her black wings wide and charging her blaster with dark energy, but not firing.

There was something about these two that was tugging at Zero's mind, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

-

'Mavericks… what the heck are they, and why would we have to surrender… we work for good. Well I do now... most people still think I'm evil, this is totally messed up' Protoman thought, next to him he felt Megaman becoming uncomfortable... the blue robot wasn't use to people telling him to surrender or be destroyed.

Other then him that is.

"I don't think so," Protoman said in a mostly emotionless voice, he had just gotten free…no way was he about to become scrap metal or surrender to some unknown.

"Not good, not good at all," Megaman said.

With that, the two robots powered up there own weapons for the coming battle… and there would be a battle.

"Heh, typical." Zero chided. "Let's see how you handle yourself in battle."

With a sudden burst of speed neither Megaman nor Protoman had expected, Zero slammed his shoulder on Protoman's stomach, sending him reeling back before he could shoot, but didn't continue attacking, smiling smugly. "Listen, kid, give it up." he said.

Protoman smirked and licked his lips, a challenge… he finally had one. He had held back a lot… and he meant a lot when he fought Megaman, now it looked like he was finally against someone he could let loose. His eyes gleamed behind his visor, hidden from view.

"No thanks. Giving up is lame… especially since we came upon a situation that makes you look bad. We can't give up, for all we know you could just destroy the city once we do," proto said smirking; yet his voice sounded older then usual… more true to his age.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree," Megaman said frowning.

Gabumon frowned. That wasn't what hell-bent-on-destruction-types said to heroes... it was normally the other way around. Oh... crap.

With a cry of defiance, Black Peregrine let loose a black energy ball straight at Megaman, who managed to jump out of the way before it hit him. He could just stare as it hit a car and then dissipated. Soon enough, the car came into pieces. Literally.

Taking that as a cue, Zero pulled out his sword and Robinmon flew to help Peregrine as a more subdued and very worried Gabumon ran towards Zero.

"That was a powerful attack," Megaman said wide eyed, it wasn't often he met someone that powerful… other then Protoman... most of Wily's bots were a joke... in fact... a normal kid could probably destroy some of them with no help.

"This is starting to get interesting," Protoman said with a certain grin, a very familiar grin.

One Megaman recognized, the one that said things were about to get a lot more destructive, he sighed... he really wished Protoman would get over that habit... but he was starting too. It was just hard to break bad habits like that,

"Um... Zero..." Gabumon ventured, but stepped back as his friend swung his sword in complicated motions before pointing it at the shield-wielding robot. "Let's hunt!" he said in that tone that Gabumon just knew meant trouble for later. Tai used to call it the "Matt Mode of Doom."

He sighed as his friend exploded into action with a shout, slicing the ground open and leaving a trail of ice in his sword's wake.

Meanwhile, Robinmon was enjoying watching Peregrine dissolve her gun and transform her hands into bird like claws, much to the discomfort of the blue robot.

'Creepy' Megaman thought, that was the one thought going through his mind as he watched the female humanoid bird robot reform her hands to claws. 'Why do all the evil robots do that' he thought.

Protoman smirked as he jumped into the air. He shifted his shield to under his feet and actually rode out the power and shockwave from the pony tailed robots attack.

"Nice," he said in appreciation, he loved destructive attacks.

"..." Zero didn't say anything for a second. He had finished his move in a very, very cool position, half kneeling, sword pointed forward, street obliterated in destruction and ice behind him... and had missed. "This might be interesting." he muttered as his only warning, turning around and slashing at Protoman in a combination of attacks.

Slowly his frown disappeared and he was smiling as the strange robot was able to dodge, block, parry and even shoot back at him.

Meanwhile, Peregrine had swooped up into the air, and then fallen down in a glide that knocked Megaman out of his feet, leaving a scratch of claws on his helmet.

"Where's Rush when you need him," Megaman cried as he dodged another shot from his opponent, he cast a look quickly in Protoman's direction and sweatdropped when he saw the cheerful grin on his face. 'Can't he take this seriously' he thought annoyed.

Protoman meanwhile was enjoying himself a lot, just by dodging and watching his opponent he was learning the others style and power level, in fact... if this went on long enough he could probably know all this guys moves and beat him with it… sadly this was a true fact.

But… enough fun, his smirk went wider and he jabbed forward and sent his opponent painfully slamming into the ground.

Zero grinned and pulled himself up, dusting himself off. "Nice one. Almost felt it." He said with a smile. "It's good to see that not all opponents here are wimps that cannot adapt... but it is time I took the blocks out."

With that and no warning, Protoman was backhanded across the street and into a store, through the cashier and into the lingerie section. "Take your time!" Zero's voice drifted through the haze of confusion.

Gabumon took that opportunity to run towards him.

"Okay... now I'm serious... no more playing... no matter how much fun that was," Protoman said getting up. He dusted off his armor which didn't even have a scratch. He walked through the decimated building… as he did he began to whistle... in fact he was known by his whistling when he came to battle… especially when he was serious about it.

"Time to pay the reaper blonde," Protoman said to himself, no one heard him… but if they did they would have shivered at the coldness in his voice.

Even Sigma in the future would have.

"Matt..." Gabumon tried. "Zero!" he shouted finally in exasperation.

"What is it Gabumon?" Zero asked, noticing that his opponent was walking calmly out of the store.

"Matt... you have to stop this. I don't think these are the bad guys..." the Digimon said urgently.

"Oh, come on, Gabumon, just listen to that creepy guy whistling in the lingerie store... you cannot tell me that's good!" he made sure the baddie could listen to that one.

"Matt..." Gabumon warned.

Matt sighed. "We'll see what happens now, Gabumon." he said. "Now, step out of the way or transform. That guy could tear a rookie Digimon, no matter how strong, to pieces just by looking at it."

Gabumon growled but stepped away as Zero stretched and waited for his opponent's next move.

"Actually… Mega level Digimon if I wanted, but it's good that your partner stepped out of the way. I happen to like Digimon, in fact years ago I knew a boy who had a Digimon partner... it was sad when he died. But his friends are moving on, especially the red headed girl with her partner," Protoman said as he stopped whistling, he was actually talking about his past self.

But he very much doubted this bot would believe he was once human, of that he once had a partner. But he was curious of one thing, how could a robot have a Digimon partner?

"Not impressed." Zero said, really not impressed. "If you take Apocalymon one on one THEN I will be slightly impressed."

Gabumon threw a stone at him and it bounced off his helmet. "Sigh... okay, okay." he growled. "How do you know about Digimon, anyway?" he asked.

Protoman paused and stared at Zero in disbelief, not that Zero could see his eyes.

"Where the hell have you been, everyone knows about Digimon… especially after the D-Reaper tried to delete the real world and the digital southern world. Hell, even the sovereigns were almost destroyed by that blob of an evil leftover program," Protoman said in a shocked voice, even Megaman knew this… hell the stupidest of Wily's robots knew about Digimon.

Zero frowned. "D-Reaper?" he thought for a moment. "I think Azulongmon said something about that happening on another server..." he muttered. "Never thought much of them though. Wimps, the whole lot of them." he declared.

Protoman twitched slightly, Zero had just insulted himself, his friends and many people he respected.

"You shouldn't have said that," he hissed, in just nano-seconds he was in front of Zero and had the blond haired robot on the ground with his arms held painfully held behind him.

"I think you are the wimp blond boy, you insult what you do not know... tell me… do you know the meaning of absolution," Protoman sneered, by this time Megaman and Bird girl had stopped fighting and watched the two warriors… time seemed frozen as Protoman sent Zero in Pain.

"Whatever, Shades." Zero growled. "If this is the best you can do you're in for a surprise." Just as fast as Protoman had done, Zero had twisted and slammed Protoman against a lamppost.

"One: I've fought worse threats than a minor world skirmish, kid." Slam. "Two: I KNOW those you call 'Sovereign-Digimon' in my part of the Digiworld, some believe they are gods. Personally, I think they could drown in their ego. " Slam! Slam! Slam! "Three, Four and Five: Wimps is what they are! I'm not surprised they couldn't handle anything here either!" By now, even if Protoman's armor hadn't suffered damaged he had battered the robot enough to twist his arms free and grab him by the neck, bringing him face to face. "And Six... I know what sacrifice is, more than you'll ever know. So I will teach you another word: SILENCE!"

Gabumon sighed. Just when there had been hope for a peaceful solution. He distantly noticed that blue guy was fighting BP again. "Will this never end?" he moaned.

Yet a strange smile came to Protoman's face, not anger…not rage… but sadness... it was not something Zero was expecting.

"What do you know of me? You know pain for you scream your rage… your sorrow… in every battle. You wonder what will tomorrow bring, are you strong enough to beat what will come next. Can you guide yourself through the chaos, can you see the danger… the hate and anger you are leading yourself for eternity into." he said. "Yet I know all too much of pain and sacrifice, I've seen it, faced it… and even wished that I could stop all evil. But one cannot change destiny, it comes and goes… no one truly knows the future," he whispered to Zero alone.

At that moment his visor shattered due to the pressure from Zeros banging, crimson… very human eyes were revealed.

"Tell me, if you truly know what sacrifice is… why do you let your fear rule you," he finally said, and since Protoman was free he only told the truth.

Zero stopped glaring and slowly set Protoman down putting his hands on the shorter robot's shoulders. "You... you're not a robot... or a Reploid... you're human!" he said. He gritted his teeth in sudden anger and Protoman could feel just how strong Zero was when he actually felt the pressure in his shoulders armor and all… and realized that while his opponent had certainly underestimated him, he had done the same. "It shouldn't be possible again," Zero continued, eyes focusing on Protoman again. "Unless... Wily!" he growled.

Gabumon sighed, having been privy to what had happened. Well at least things would go back to normal now... he looked around, searching for the others.

"Zero!" Gabumon shouted suddenly, pointing to the other end of the street.

Zero turned around and saw Peregrine holding a very battered Megaman by the neck smiling savagely as she charged her free claws for a destructive swipe at the blue-bomber's head.

"Damn!" Zero swore. In a flash, faster than even Protoman could follow, he was behind Black Peregrine, forcing her arms back so that she let the robot go. "Stop!"

BP shrieked much like a hawk and tried to loose him, but he held on. "I SAID STOP NOW, HUNTER!" he ordered.

That seemed to calm her down. She blink-blinked, shaking her head. "What... what happened?"

Megaman fell to his knees. He was still alive, although his armor would need some time to be brought back into shape.

Protoman had walked up to Megaman and helped him up, noticing that despite the sorry state of his armor, he was otherwise fine. "You okay, bro?"

Megaman nodded, looking at Peregrine with a little trepidation. "Yes, I'm okay…"

Protoman nodded and looked back at Zero. "You mentioned Dr. Wily." He said with a dangerous undertone. "How do you know him? Don't tell me you work for him?"

Zero didn't let go of Peregrine, even as she reacted to the name with a sudden look of guilt.

"Wily... was a problem once. No more." Zero said. "We don't work for him, but he was responsible for a lot of things that happened to us."

Gabumon led Robinmon towards them, the bird Digimon looking at the two strangers with a mixture of curiosity and open distrust.

"Heh… we have a lot in common then stranger, more then we realize. I think we need to talk, and this place will soon be crawling with police or more of Wily's little robots… you might as well come with us to get this all settled," Protoman said, Megaman blinked.

"Do you think that's wise Protoman?" he asked concerned, Protoman looked at Zero.

"Yeah, I think that these four are the cause of the disturbance in time and space… we got to get them out of sight before Wily decides he wants them," Protoman said. "Call ahead to Dr. Light Megaman… sigh… this has long day written all over it," he muttered. Megaman nodded and pulled out his communicator to call his creator.

Meanwhile, Zero's mind had been going over the words the robot-human had said. "Dr. Light?" he said suddenly, snapping back to the present and finally letting go of Peregrine, who smiled sheepishly at Megaman. "The Dr. Light that made Megaman?" he looked at the blue robot. "He's weaker than the reports said..." he muttered. Then, "Wait... bro?" he asked looking at Proto. "Is he...?" Zero couldn't be sure, but… could Megaman also have a human soul inside his robot body?

Protoman sweatdropped at the strange looks they were receiving, he sighed.

"This is all fine and dandy, well lets go… by the way… any chance you two can get through the city without fighting, Wily's robots attacking… you know the works... the things that other robotic visitors seem to do when they get here?" Proto asked curious.

"Proto, you make it seem that chaos follows around every unknown robot," Megaman said with a sweatdrop.

"Your point being, think of the chaos that followed me before I got free of Wily's control. Anyway Mega, we have to get them home without trouble, and I don't know if they can blend in like we can... hell were the only two robots I know that can," Protoman pointed out, and Megaman knew he had a point.

Zero exchanged looks with Peregrine and nodded. Soon they were covered in light and their armor disappeared, leaving them in their civilian forms. Peregrine looked like a black-winged angel until her metallic wings finally shrank to "decorative" size.

"Will this do?" Matt asked all innocence.

Protoman sighed, why did he get the ones with the weird sense of humor... like himself.

"It will do," Protoman said, he shared a look with Megaman who nodded.

Silver light surrounded them briefly, then standing there were a teenager and a pre-teen.

Standing there was a human looking Protoman; he wore normal clothing. The only thing that hadn't vanished that he had been wearing was his scarf; at least that was the same.

He was wearing a navy blue sweatshirt with a white hazard symbol on it; he wore tight form fitting black jeans and simple white sneakers. The final touch was black fingerless gloves.

Megaman was different, the blue bomber looked to be a human boy around thirteen with short messy brown hair that had a slight reddish color to it. He wore a white long sleeve T-shirt with a blue vest over it; he wore simple blue jeans and a cool pair of blue combat boots, and last of all he wore blast wristbands.

"Nice scarf." Matt said. At least this would make things easier. "The name's Matt." he said.

"This is Gabumon, my Partner." he pointed at the Digimon, who smiled.

"Nice to meet you!" Gabumon said happy that things were calming down.

"This is Jessie, my girlfriend." he said, taking the shapely girl's arm. She blushed.

"Sorry about almost ripping your head off." she said lamely to Megaman.

She apparently didn't know what else to say, so Matt continued. "This is Robinmon, our friend and, uh... Jessie's adopted partner."

"Humph!" Robinmon said. "Only because I don't have a Digivice and she lost her Tag of Lameness." she said and was rewarded by a bonk to the head, courtesy of Jessie.

Megaman snickered.

"Call me Rock when I'm like this, in armor I'm Megaman. This is Takato, but when he's armored up call him Protoman," Megaman said cheerfully.

"Tag of lameness… not another one, why do I always meet the Digimon that say weird things," Takato said looking at Robinmon, Rock snickered.

"Come on Takato, its not that bad," Rock teased.

"If you say that again, I will borrow Terriermon from Henry and lock you in the same room as him for three hours," Takato threatened straight faced, and he meant it… Rock sweatdropped.

Matt took a look at the two and could really believe they were brothers.

"Should we go, then?" he asked. "So, this Henry, is he a Digidestined?" he asked Takato.

"Yeah, we better go," Rock said with a frown, they started walking from the battle scene.

"Actually, Henry is called a Tamer… not a Digidestined," Takato said giving Matt a strange look… for some weird reason Matt reminded him of the Matt from the Digimon Adventure cartoon.

"Really?" Matt asked. "Well, I guess it makes sense to call them Tamers... in a way... sounds kind of Pokemonish to me, though. Does he have a Tag?" he asked.

"Tag... what the hell is that. The only thing I've heard of tags and Digimon even centered near each other was in the 'Digimon Adventure' cartoon years ago," Takato explained, this was getting weird.

"Well..." Matt looked at Takato strangely. "There are different types of Tags... mine is the Tag of Friendship, it's the strongest characteristic I have that I share with Gabumon, that's why when I met him in File Island he knew who I was... all other Digi- I mean, Tamers I know have one. Tai, Kari, T.K., Joe, Izzy, Mimi and Sora all have Tags." He explained.

'Please don't let this be what I think it is, Digimon was a shock enough when I found they were real… the cartoon can't exist also can it... maybe a different time… alternate universe maybe' Takato thought frowning,

"You know, I think I may have something you might be interested in… I'll show you when we get to our place," Takato said to matt, he was definitely going to get Matt to watch the cartoon.

Matt noticed Takato's discomfort and decided to let him be. Maybe the guy also had wanted to be a Digidestined and didn't manage to get a Digimon for himself. Instead, he dropped a little behind and started talking with Jessie as they followed the two robots.

"What happened back there?" he asked in a whisper.

Jessie shook her head. "I... I don't know... for some reason I was so angry at poor Megaman..." she said, then started to speak louder, unconsciously going into the defensive. "I... think I was really enjoying tearing him apart... I'm scared... I never thought I could do something like that... since..." Matt put a hand on her shoulder, looking at Takato to see if he had heard.

If he had, he was doing a very good job of keeping it to himself. "We can talk about this later, BP." he said in a caring tone.

Jessie nodded and followed the others through the now busy streets.

-

Takato had in fact heard the conversation behind him; he hadn't survived Wily with bad hearing. But he was relieved in a way; that meant Jesse was a nice girl… just having a bad time.

"We should be arriving in a few minutes," he called back to Matt and Jesse and their respective Digimon.

With a final, reassuring smile to Jessie, Matt walked up to Takato. "Hey, you said that you had been registering some space/time fluctuations, right? We came here because we detected those a few days ago and decided to investigate. You think Dr. Light might help us find the origin?"

Takato blinked and nodded. "Probably, he's been going happily scanning for the sources since we detected it," he replied, in fact he bet the one they detected was Matt and his group arriving.

"I just realized something, you guys don't have a place to stay," Rock said blinking.

"You're right," Takato said with a frown. He realized where this was leading up to, if his little bro had his way the visitors would be staying with them. He didn't know if he could live with that, especially with the Digimon so near by… they reminded him so much that he would never have Guilmon by his side ever again.

Matt considered. "Well, yeah, but I figure we could always find a place to stay. We have money..."

Jessie nodded, picking up Robinmon.

"But we should talk to Dr. Light. He must have detected the same signals we did, and I am kind of worried about that." Matt finished.

"First we go see Dr. Light... then find a place for you to stay," Takato said to them.

"Why don't they stay with us, that way they don't have to worry about finding a place and can save there money?" Rock suggested, Takato sighed.. He had a feeling if he said no he would have been outvoted.

"Whatever," he said.

Jessie was a little torn. "Oh, we wouldn't... don't worry about it, we can find our own place..."

Matt, who had spied Takato's reaction more carefully, put his hands on the back of his head. "Well, I don't know, it might be more fun staying with them, and we would have Dr. Light to talk to..." he said "Plus, we can't have Gabumon and Robinmon walking around like that, they might scare someone."

"But..." Gabumon started.

"AND," Matt interrupted. "Home made food is SO much BETTER than the stuff we would have to buy..."

Gabumon was about to speak when his stomach grumbled. "Hehe..." he laughed, blushing.

'Damn… he's one of those people' Takato thought, he gave an internal sigh… hopefully nothing would happen to Roll tonight or he would have to cook. Dr. Light couldn't cook for the life of him, Rock had almost blown up the kitchen the other day just trying to toast... well toast. And himself, well he still remembered how to cook after his years of living in a bakery.

"Oh Joy," Takato said, now he would have to live with two Digimon reminding him of more he lost.

'Guilmon… you're with me in a way… but its not the same' he thought sadly, yet none of these thoughts showed on his face or even his eyes.

Matt smiled to himself. He just knew Takato was the type that wouldn't have visitors if he could have it his way. "Well, we shall see what to do after we've spoken to the good doctor."

-TBC-

Here is the end of the first chappy, pretty long isn't it. Well, this is one of the reasons 'a robot's soul' wasn't updated in so long, we were writing this fic…and we still are.


	2. Chapter Two

This is a co-written fic, the fics converging are 'A Robot's Soul' and 'Digital souls'. I hope you enjoy this, especially since both have huge fan followings. Before you read it, read chapter Thirteen of 'a robots soul' where the side story takes place.

Digimon Souls

By Wanderer D and Firehedgehog

Chapter 2

Dr. Light was working on something as the group arrived, Rock hadn't seen Roll so he guessed she was on some type of errand. Probably to buy milk, Takato had a tendency to drink all the milk at all meals.

"Dr. Light?" he questioned, he didn't just go up to the man. His creator could be a nervous man during projects, and the group he had brought with him would be a surprise.

"Rock… yes... what is it?" Light asked looking up; the man blinked his eyes showing eh had probably been looking at the computer screen already for hours.

"Well... we went to stop the riot… well that's over with… but," Rock said, he trailed off… how could he say this.

"We found one of the reasons there was a flux in time and space," Takato said in a no nonsense voice, getting it over with at least.

"That's great, where are they?" Light asked with excitement, Rock sweatdropped at the man's excitement. But, he supposed it wasn't often you got to meet people from other times.

"You guys can come in now," Takato called dryly, at that moment Matt, Jesse and their partners walked into the Lab.

Matt took a look around the lab. It was not what he expected from the famous Dr. Light... it was a mess. Well, geniuses were eccentric at the best times, according to Gennai, and boy, was HE eccentric. In front of him, chubby, white bearded, in a lab coat and very much alive was a man he had met a couple of times in an alternate future shaped by wars between robots, Reploids and humans. Only, then it had been a hologram, not the real deal.

"Dr. Light." Matt said, a little subdued and shaking the surprised man's hand. "It is an honor to meet you in person, sir." he said. "My name is Matt, also known as Zero." he smiled sardonically. "I was created and trapped by Dr. Wily with the purpose of destroying Megaman... and..." he bent forward to whisper in the man's ear. "...X."

He smiled in a more honest way. "Fortunately for all of us, he miscalculated the power of the heart." he motioned towards Jessie and the Digimon. "This is Jessie, or Black Peregrine, a combat Reploid who joined the battle against those that would destroy the humans and peaceful Reploids. This is Gabumon, my Digimon Partner, and this is Robinmon, Jessie's partner in training."

Lights eyes lit up slightly before going back to normal, a smile came to his face.

"I see, so your group is from the future... amazing… I wonder how many of my projects I completed," Light said in amazement. Takato meanwhile narrowed his eyes. He knew he had missed something in the conversation between Light and Matt.

'I wonder, he said future… could Matt know something of Lights future… and Matt had actually said truthfully that his body had been created by Wily… so much about there beginnings were the same.

"Your welcome to stay at my place Matt, please make yourselves at home while we discuss the time/space flux… you can stay in the guests rooms," Light finally said.

'Yeah' Takato thought sarcastically.

Matt smiled, and noted Takato's sour mood. "Well, we'll accept a cup of coffee, Dr. Light, but we can always get a place nearby. We don't want to impose on your hospitality." He smirked at the robot.

Gabumon looked up. "But, Matt, you said..." the boy quickly covered his friend's mouth with his hand, smiling sheepishly "I was just joking, Gabumon. We cannot just drop from the multiverse into the good Dr. Light's home and abuse his kindness."

Jessie smirked. "Quite the sudden change of attitude, Matt. Why is that?" she asked, elbowing him.

Matt blushed. "Okay, okay, so I was joking earlier? Give me a break."

If glares could have killed, Matt would have been dead ten times in less then ten seconds. Takato stopped his glare and smiled, yes… no freeloaders.

"That's not a bad idea, and I know theirs a nice hotel nearby… also a nice apartment rented by monthly lease if you want to stay there… both affordable and very nice," Takato said cheerfully, sending the word 'hint hint' with his eyes to Matt. And he was actually telling the truth.

Once he had been free of Wily and repaired at Lights he had looked around for a place before Rock had gotten him to agree (more like blackmailed him with the puppy dog eyes attack) to stay.

Matt just smiled and shook his head, more than half tempted to give Protoman "the finger." "Heh, we'll see. For now, maybe we should talk." he turned to Dr. Light. "The reason we're here is that we detected changes in the space/time flux in this area of the Digital World Servers. Since we have had trouble before with that, we decided to check, but we haven't found anything yet."

Takato sighed, this didn't sound good.

"I know someone you can talk to about the Digital World southern server with, the problem is he won't be available till tomorrow. Meetings you know, but I can arrange something… he's the best to talk to it about… Light… he doesn't know much about Digimon to tell the truth," Takato replied frowning.

"I'm afraid Takato is right, your best bet is to go to his friend," Light said with a sigh.

Matt nodded. "Maybe. But the trail led to this world, not the Digital World... and after meeting you guys..."

"We think that it might be someone from the future coming back..." Jessie said. "It has happened before and it wasn't good."

"Dr. Cain," Matt said. "A Reploid scientist from our future, made a calculation based on the time relativity between the Digital World and the future timeline and figured that it was from about the same point in time we were back home, only in this continuum."

"And he didn't need to stop to breathe..." Gabumon whispered in awe to Robinmon.

"Hmm... interesting… would you mind if I record our conversation for future references?" Light asked, Zero shrugged and light started recording the conversation.

"You guys keep talking. I'm heading for bed and a nice long recharge… I have plans tomorrow." Takato said, with that he left the room whistling a dark tune.

-

After Takato left, Matt took out a small data crystal and handed it to Dr. Light. "This contains the details for our mission, along with the data Dr. Cain compiled about the current situation."

Dr. Light nodded and took the data crystal, walking up to a machine and placing it there. After a few moments, a few laser beams crisscrossed the crystal and the information started appearing on the monitor.

Jessie stared curiously at the machine. "Look, Matt! It's one of those ancient data processing units we saw in the museum!" she exclaimed happily. "I never thought I would see one at work!"

Matt smiled sheepishly as he saw Dr. Light cringe at the allusion that his technology wasn't not only up to date, but above it.

As Gabumon and a less interested Robinmon walked up to the machine to look at it closer, Matt took the opportunity to calm the good Doctor. "Listen guys, remember that we are more than one hundred years in the past. The technology here is years ahead of what most advanced labs have." From the corner of his eyes he saw Light relax.

"But, Matt," Gabumon said. "Don't you have a pocket data-crystal reader?"

When he saw the good Doctor slump, Matt decided to change topics. Walking up to the monitor, he pointed at the dates and times. "As you can see, Dr, Light, if what we detected is true…"

Megaman walked up to them and tried to see what was so important.

Doctor Light considered the data on the monitor. "Hmm. So the first space-time aberration happened a week ago."

Matt nodded. "Yes, it wasn't strong enough to send a person or group to the past, but it might have allowed a probe of some kind to get through."

"So, whoever it is that arrived here already had some information about what was happening here and who the mayor players are." Jessie pointed out.

"We still have to find out who crossed, and that will have to wait." Dr. Light said. "In the meantime, can I see your pocket data-crystal reader?"

As Dr. Light looked expectantly at them, Matt remembered something. "Dr, Megaman suffered a little damage during the battle, maybe you should check him while we talk about certain details…"

Light nodded, arching an eyebrow, but quickly catching on that Matt didn't want Megaman to know something.

"Yes… Rock, why don't you go into stasis so I can check you?" Dr. Light said after a slight hesitation.

-

Takato came out his recharge/sleep cycle slowly, his awareness of the world returned quickly. He opened his crimson eyes and sighed, today was not one he looked forward too… never this day.

"It always seems to come faster every year," he whispered, in fact this day marked six years… six years since then.

Feeling depressed the robotic teen slipped out of bed and changed into a different set of clothing, also ones different from his usual. He wore a black loose sweatshirt, black jeans, faded brown sneakers and black gloves with little red hazard symbols on them.

At that moment the drum of rain on the roof caught his attention, he looked out his window and sighed, for rain fell heavily outside.

"Even the weather seems to sense my sadness," he whispered, with that he pulled on a water proof coat, grabbed an umbrella and slipped out the door.

In the end, despite much of Matt and Jessie's complaints, they had fallen to Rock's unexpected puppy-eye attack. The fact that he had applied it to the Digimon first and then all three of them, PLUS the dog had gone into a battle of emotional blackmail against their reluctant comrades had only proven that there was only so much even a Maverick Hunter could fight against.

Heck, the onslaught hadn't even lasted more than a minute when even Dr. Light started to show signs of joining the effort. And so, Jessie and Matt had stayed in Dr. Light's home in different beds, much to Matt's annoyance and much to Roll's happiness, since she had spent the night gossiping with Jessie. Of what, he didn't know. And didn't want to know. He had put up with the giggling and that was enough information for him.

He had woken up early with the first drops of rain on the rooftop and had remembered with a sudden nostalgic rush of memories the time when he and his younger brother, T.K. had lived together with both their parents.

T.K. always cried when a storm started, afraid of the lightning and it was always a scared but defiant Matt's responsibility to deal with the situation and calm T.K. down. Shrugging the sleep off and stretching he had gone down to the kitchen to get some coffee when he had heard someone else walking down the stairs.

He studied Takato as the boy went towards the door, grabbed an umbrella and walked out. He was so deep in his own thoughts that he had missed Matt standing there in plain view.

And if Matt had learnt something about that boy was that he would make a great Maverick Hunter (with a few upgrades he had suggested to Dr. Light) and that kind of people normally would have noticed anyone in their immediate area. A little more than curious, Matt activated his black armor, which was more suited to shadowing the other robot in the already gloomy morning and quickly ran after him.

Zero watched Takato as he waited for the bus from the top of a building. When the younger boy had stepped in, he had followed the bus easily enough by jumping from building to building, even doing mid-air dashes when the situation required. In the mean time he was trying to figure out where his new friend was going. When the bus stopped and Takato walked out he found his answer.

Zero slipped into the graveyard silent as a ghost and crouched behind an old statue between some trees, from where he could see Takato standing in front of some graves. His enhanced sigh was able to make out the names and he suddenly realized that he was intruding in a very personal moment. Sighing, he was about to retreat when he noticed someone approaching.

Takato looked up with a start as he heard footsteps coming his way, he turned to see a very familiar figure. Standing without guards or weapons of any kind was Wily, the old man looked him sadly.

"I thought I'd see you here Takato, you always come here on this day," Wily said softly, different from his normal voice... this was a voice he had spoken to Takato with as a small child.

"Usually you don't come till later on to visit them, I thought if I came this early I wouldn't run into you," Takato whispered, he turned back to the graves and stared silently. Wily slowly walked over to the graves; and placed his mother's favorite flowers on them, he then stood by Takato.

"Your mother Mai would have been proud of you Takato, she was a wonderful person all her life.. it hurt when she grew up and moved away," Wily told him, Takato stayed silent.. he missed his mother so much.

"Will you ever forgive me, forgive an old man who was afraid to loose his last bit of family and would do anything to keep them close?" Wily asked softly, and Takato knew his grandfather was telling the truth.

"Maybe one day, but not for quite awhile… maybe in the future," Takato told his grandfather.

Zero stared. He had activated his hearing sensors the moment he had recognized the figure walking up to Takato. Wily! He had heard what the old man told Takato, but it was taking every inch of his self control not to rush out and gut the bastard right then and there. The statue's left foot was slowly becoming dust as he tried in vain to hold his anger in check.

Only one thing stopped him from taking action. His sensors, now active and scanning had noticed another figure, this one hidden on the top of the trees. When his scanners told him the unknown was moving, he had already seen the attack coming from above the two unsuspecting victims in the form of silver-blue armor and fire.

With a yell, Zero dashed out, a shining black blur accompanied by a hum and frozen particles of water as he activated the best weapon he had against fire. He jumped over the surprised Takato and de slower reacting Wily and ice and fire clashed just above them in a shower of energy that threw them both to the ground.

Zero couldn't see his opponent through the glow of his sword being held back by another similar weapon. Sparks of blue and red flew around both combatants as they slashed away and landed a few feet from each other, just next to the stunned would-be victims. Zero couldn't believe his eyes. Standing in front of him, glowering and menacing in an unfocused rage was himself, only in a blue and silver armor that reminded him of X...

-

Takato had to be seeing things, two Zero's.

He watched as the traded blows at amazing speeds, speeds he could barely match. He did wonder what the hell Matt was doing here at the graveyard, after all no one knew he had come here.

That meant… oh no…Matt had followed him.

'That meant Matt heard me talking to gramps; he must realize were related. And from what I know, he hates Wily… will he hate me too!' Takato thought with a wince.

He shook his head bringing his back to reality, now that he wasn't lost on certain thoughts he noticed certain things… like the fact the other Zero was blue and silver… different then the Zero he was familiar with.

"Zero… who the hell is that!" Takato shouted to the fighting duo… hopefully this would be easily taken care of.

The Digidestined-turned-Reploid barely registered Takato's voice, but the same question the younger robot had asked burned in his mind... who is that? Immediately he made the connection, although he didn't really want to think of the two possible out comes for the appearance and attitude of his counterpart.

"What happened to X?" He growled at the other Zero.

The blue and silver armored Reploid stopped and grinned, dropping his guard an inch. "I finished him off!" he declared. "I absorbed his data and power! I fulfilled my mission and destroyed them all!"

Takato meanwhile was bewildered, X... who the hell was X.

But the evil version looking of Zero gave him the creeps, and that was saying a lot for himself. Looking at the two, it was like watching a demented mirror attack itself.

"Wily… I think we better get out of here," Takato said, at that moment a strike by the evil Zero caused a tree to fall over… after being sliced in two.

"I agree," Wily said, quickly the two began to retreat from the weirdest battle ever.

The evil Zero looked at the retreating figures and his eyes turned red. "You will not escape!" he shouted, dashing at the pair.

He was body slammed into another tree by Zero, who looked over his shoulder at the pair. "Go!" he yelled. "I'll take care of him!"

He didn't know this earth's X... but the guy back home was his brother as much as T.K. "Why did you kill him!"

The evil Reploid started pushing Zero back, despite his best efforts. "Because... He wouldn't fight! He let Sigma destroy everything and would not fight because of his "principles" he was a wimp! A coward! I needed the extra power to defeat Sigma once and for all!"

Zero gritted his teeth and jumped back, doing a spiral and using his light saber two attack at the same time, his counterpart parried every single blow in an astonishing combination of moves, when they landed farther apart, Zero began to realize that he had to do something quick.

Meanwhile Takato had gotten far enough away that he was no longer in danger of being hit by the high paced battle, he looked at Wily his grandfather and sighed.

"For once I believe this isn't your fault," Takato said dryly, the old man just sighed.

"Good luck Wily, I didn't want to fight on this day of days, yet I feel Zero will need my help against that evil version of himself," Takato said, silver light briefly surrounded him as he changed into Protoman. He started to walk away, at that moment a hand was placed on his shoulder.

Startled he turned; of all people it was Wily.

"Be careful," Wily said, Protoman nodded and began to head for the battle.

Zero and his counterpart started another series of attacks, parries and counters. He dodged an overhead swing, slashing at his opponent's legs, but the crazed Reploid had already jumped and turned slashing horizontally, then letting his momentum carry him through another dash-improved low spin which Zero barely dodged in time and countered with an electric mid-air thrust. Evil Zero bent back, letting the crackling sword hover just over his chest for a millisecond before making a hand-sprint, forcing Zero to dodge to the side or be slammed. Snarling, Zero followed his thrust with a sudden one handed half-spin, took his sword in both hands and engaged a series of swings that would have left a lesser opponent armless in less than it took them to remember to breathe.

A side of him noticed Protoman had come back, but he didn't dare even spare him a glance, as Evil Zero replied in his own way, slashing in a very impressive spin that made him stumble back as the blue saber nicked his arm. Both stopped at that and his opponent smiled. "First blood goes to me."

Protoman swore silently as he saw Zero get hit, he glared at Mr. Demento as he called the evil Zero in his mind and wondered what he could do. He didn't know what the guy was after, but he had seemed mad when he had tried to leave with Wily… so it was either Wily or himself.

He activated his blaster and his left hand vanished as his blaster appeared, when he had first done this years ago he had been quite freaked out…in fact he had been hysterical. He shook himself out of those memories; he had a situation at his hands right now. He concentrated on the battle and let his combat programs over it, he grinned darkly (and many would say very scary) and shot,

The blast hit evil Zero squarely on his chest, it sent him hurtling back with a satisfying large dent in his front… he loved when he had it full power. He knew this would involve him in the battle, but hey… the guy had attacked Wily and himself without provocation.

As his opponent flew out of immediate slashing range, Zero sighed and shot a thankful glance at Protoman. "Thanks! But be careful! My Black Armor is much stronger than the normal one and he managed to nick it!"

He turned as his opponent stood up... and felt cold. Protoman's shot would have put a similar dent on his own armor if he had been shot at that range and without expecting it. What it wouldn't do was what the mad Zero's armor was doing. It had repaired itself completely.

Zero felt the hot air as Protoman let fly another impressive shot, hitting his counterpart on the chest, but this time only making him stumble back a little and with considerable less damage. "Huh-oh... Damn."

"Okay… he adapts… damn," Protoman muttered, he really wished this wasn't happening. That was the same power as last time; it would start to get dangerous if he charged it past that point.

'All of a sudden, this guy reminds me of the Borg in that star trek series Dr. Light is addicted to… at least he isn't saying Resistance is Futile… yet' Protoman thought frowning, looks like if he wanted to help Zero with all his cool weapons from the future… he would have to take it up a notch.

With a grin he pulled his shield off his back, unknown to many… even Dr. Light…this shield had special abilities.. He just hadn't had a chance you use them yet. He pulled it in front of himself and connected to it with his main computer, moments later he started to activate his beam attack… oh… how he had drooled to use this over the years.

Seconds later the shields internal computer told him that it was powered up.

"Light beam lance!" he shouted aiming at evil Zero, as fast as light... well golden light burst from his shield and hit evil Zero. A huge cracking noise was heard as the evil Zero was flung into the distance, Protoman sighed… too bad that took all the shields power…it would take twelve hours to recharge.

Hopefully, there wouldn't be a reason it had to recharge.

Zero whistled and looked appreciatively at the shield. "Well, I must say I am impressed... with your shield." he smiled and looked at the horizon, where his counterpart had been flung. "We should get back to the others... he won't come back right now..."

Protoman sweatdropped at the remark, Zero just had to say something about it didn't he.

"Yeah I guess so," Protoman sighed, he started walking away and let himself go back to his human looking self… his shield vanished with the armor. As he walked he did so hope Zero asked to try his shields abilities, he'd love to see his face when he found that only he could use it due to the fact it was made to use with him. And only him.

Zero, in the meantime had been re-living the battle in his mind over and over, from the computer's analysis, to the battle programs, to his own intuition and experience, adding, subtracting and gauging both, his opponent's and his ally's strength.

Protoman's shield weapon was impressive, but, it wouldn't be enough. His counterpart would regenerate and be much more resistant to attacks. He had already considered Protoman's "Light beam Lance" as probably one of Proto's last resorts, judging from the time it took to re-charge and that he hadn't used it in their own battle.

Engaged in his own thoughts, Zero hadn't noticed that they had walked out of the cemetery and were waiting for the bus. A normal boy and an armored battle-Reploid waiting for the bus, "But, what if..." Zero mumbled as he thought furiously. The Reploid had X's abilities added to his own, and that meant more trouble than he, Peregrine, Protoman and Megaman would be able to handle. X was... something else.

Only the fact that the X in this universe had decided not to fight, regardless of the outcome had allowed that Zero to kill him and absorb his power and capabilities. He sighed, brooding as the bus approached.

Takato sweatdropped as he watched Zero stay in deep thought mode, he really hoped he would snap out of it. He very much doubted eth bus driver would allow an armored robot onto it, especially after all Wily's lackey Robots caused lots of damage.

Even more damage then he had done under Wily's control.

"Um.. Zero… the bus is here… maybe you should go back to looking human before the humans start to notice," Takato finally said.

"Hmm?" Zero asked, and then turned his left arm into a booster. "Busy, just point my gun in the right direction..." he mumbled.

Takato twitched.

And whapped Zero head, thankfully not hard enough to hurt his hand… but still super hard.. in fact Zero was forced forward a bit.

"Stupid… snap out of it… the bus is almost here," he growled in his dark Protoman voice, the one that scared a lot of people (many times Megaman) spitless.

"..." Zero looked up the street and noticed the bus. With a mental command he shifted back to civilian appearance, just in time, as the bus stopped and the driver DID open the doors. When they sat down on the back, he looked at Takato. "We are in deep, deep shit." he declared as the motors roared and the bus sped away.

"Geeze, tell me something I don't know," Takato said in a sarcastic voice, he knew his light beam lance attack wouldn't work as well next time…hmm... he wondered if eh could use the shields other abilities… when it recharged that is.

Matt shook his head. "No... you don't understand..." he sighed. "We have to talk to Dr. Light... and..." he looked at Takato straight in the eyes in an obvious 'I am not kidding' soldier look,. "We need allies. He's not going to face us by himself... and has enough knowledge to build his own Reploids. That rules out every army in the world at this point and," he smiled, "most of Wily's robots."

"If your friends can Digivolve into Megas... that would put them in the "threat" area and so, they would be able to help... Can you contact them?"

"I can contact them, two as soon as we get back in fact... but... it will be harder to get hold of the others since I haven't been in touch with them in quite awhile," Takato thought.

Rika and Henry would be easy to get in touch with, the other Tamers a little harder.. he knew they were still shocked to find him alive… in a way.

Matt nodded. "Good... then have them meet us at your place... Dr. Light and I will have a lot to explain before we start this battle... and there is one other thing that bothers me about this..." he looked at Takato. "You probably thought of this as well... who is the target?"

-

Takato sighed in relief as they got back to the lab, he stepped inside eagerly. Thankfully after the attack it had stopped raining, so they weren't too wet… too bad he had lost the umbrella somehow.

"Were home," Takato called as they walked in.

Immediately Matt walked up to Dr. Light who was just sipping his coffee. He whispered something to the man's ear and the good Dr. paled considerably. He immediately stood up and led the way to his lab. Matt motioned for Peregrine to follow the Doctor and turned to look at Takato. "I think you have someone to contact..." he noticed the look Takato was giving him.

"I promise you'll know everything... I... X is my brother, Takato... and Dr. Light knows a lot about him." he explained. "I won't hold any secrets from you... but we need the others here."

"So you need the tamers, I'll go call them up… who else?" Takato asked curious.

Matt considered. "I..." he clenched his fist."... leave it up to you... you know your resources here much better than I could ever hope."

"Okay… I'm going to call 'him' up first," Takato said stressing the word him, seeing Matt's fist clenching even more he knew they knew what he was talking about this.

"Are you sure about this Takato, he might not be pleased… and I don't think he even has a phone," Dr Light said, Takato grinned.

"He doesn't, while I might not have a remote radio he made us all carry… I do have something he gave me when he built me," Takato said darkly, Light's face cleared in shock.

"I didn't know he built one in you, has it been shut down all this time?" Light asked.

"Yeah… I'm calling him up now," Takato said, he closed his eyes and accessed the program… He felt the other side activate right away.

-What's up doc- Takato said….

Silence

-Stop calling me that, and this better be good- Wily growled over the line. Takato smirked evilly, everyone sweatdropped at the grin not knowing what the two were saying.

-Well… the world is getting taken over by evil clones and the queen clone wants you for her mate- Takato said in a serious voice, he snickered as the man sputtered in shock.

-TAKATO- Wily yelled.

-Whatever, anyway we need you hear…its about the robot that attacked us... guess what gramps... its from the future and wants to kill either you or I- Takato said in an overly cheerful voice.

-…-

-You have no sense of humor Wily- Takato said darkly.

-I'll be there noon tomorrow... tell Light I already know the way- Wily replied.

-Whatever- Takato replied… then Wily turned it off.

"Done, he'll be here tomorrow at noon," he said still smirking.

Matt sighed. "Okay..." he turned to Light, "Dr. we need to talk."

-

"Doc…" Matt said, "The Reploid that we fought today… it was much more powerful than I told Takato."

Dr. Light frowned. "How powerful?"

Matt sighed. "Well, to be honest I don't know the limits of his power. When I fought Takato I was holding back, because I was confident that I could take him if things got serious… but with this guy… I slowly upped the ante from a normal level up and he kept up with it… no problem."

Jessie looked at him in surprise, but didn't say anything as Dr. Light sat down to think.

"This worries me." Light said, "If what you say is true, then Takato's friends might not be enough to stop him."

Matt nodded. "And I won't be able to call from back up… Dr… this thing absorbed X into it."

Dr. Light gasped. "But how…"

"Apparently X decided not to fight, and he took advantage of that, absorbing his data and abilities like X and I learn them from our defeated enemies." Matt explained.

"But, X is incredibly powerful!" Jessie interjected. "If he did that… how…"

Matt looked into Light's eyes. "I have an idea..."

As Matt explained, Dr. Light became very serious while Robinmon and Gabumon stared in disbelief at him. When he was finished, Jessie was the first to complain.

"No! That's too dangerous!" she said, grabbing Matt's arm as Dr. Light sulked.

"I know…" Matt admitted. "But it might be our only chance. We can use this as a last resort." He said. "Please Doctor… you have to consider it… if things don't work out…"

Light sighed and nodded. "We will wait, to see if it is necessary."

Matt smiled and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "That's all I ask."

Dr. Light nodded and Matt looked at the others. "Not a word of this comes out."

Everyone nodded reluctantly. He was the leader, after all.

-

While the two spoke Takato headed to the phone, while he might have gotten hold of Wily... he still had had to contact the Tamers. Henry and Rika would be easy to find, the other tamers… well Rika would get them here.

That is, if the others valued there health.

Picking up the phone, he dialed Henry's number… he was glad that Henry had gotten a cell phone in the last week... too bad the reason his parents had gotten it was because of the kidnapping.

"Hello?"

"Hi Henry, its Takato," Takato said.

"Is something wrong?" Henry asked, damn.. did his friend have a sixth sense towards these type of things.

"I guess you could say that, I need you and the other Tamers ASAP to Light's place… we have Trouble… and that's with a big 'T' by the way," Takato said, Henry sighed… in the background Takato could hear Terriermon's insistent chatter.

"Will tomorrow be good, that's the only time I see us all able to get there," Henry asked.

"Around noon… would that be good for you?" Takato asked.

"Perfect, I'll get the others... you get Rika," Henry said, with that he hung up. Takato sweatdropped, looked like Rika was still scary over the phone to most people. With a shrug he startling dialing again, he heard the other phone begin to ring over the line.

"This better be good," a grouchy voice said, Takato gulped silently… who cared that he was a robot and could easily rip a Digimon in half if he wanted too… a grouchy Rika was a scary Rika.

"Rika, this is Takato," Takato said, there was a bit of silence.

"What's the problems shades," she said all grouchiness gone, in her place was the cool battle hardened Tamer he knew... and someone he still had a crush on after all these years.

"Let's just say that trouble is on the way, the tamers will all be at Light's place tomorrow at noon... you ready for a battle... one that will come to the Tamers… and I warn you this guy is big ass trouble." Takato said, he could hear her smirk.

"I'll be there," she said, then she hung up, he sighed in relief, he would contact Yamaki later on in hope of reference to portals… he did know a lot. Till then, he had to just wait.

-TBC-

Wow, another long chappy, we have at least another one done but I still have to go over it with WandererD for mistakes and see if we should change anything.

See you all next chapter.


	3. Chapter THree

This is a co-written fic, the fics converging are 'A Robot's Soul' and 'Digital souls'. I hope you enjoy this, especially since both have huge fan followings.

Digimon Souls

By Wanderer D and Firehedgehog

Chapter 3

That night, after kissing Jessie goodnight outside her room, Matt waited for her to close the door before walking off. There was something he needed to do before going to sleep.

He crossed the hallway to stop in front of Takato's room and knocked on the door. "Takato? It's Matt. We need to talk."

Takato sighed inside his room; he had known that Matt would come here sooner or later. Just not: how soon.

"The doors unlocked Matt, come in," he replied from where he was, at that moment he was laying on his bed and staring out his window at the starlit sky. The door opened quietly, and in stepped Matt.

Matt looked at Takato for a moment and sighed. They were so similar and so different. They both insisted to themselves and others that they had dealt completely with being humans inside robot bodies... but sometimes, there was a lingering doubt about their humanity. He had seen it in Takato's eyes that time they had fought.

But there were certain differences. If what Matt had been told was true, then Wily had also turned Takato into a robot against his will, but, then, if Takato had really broken Wily's control over him, he should hate the old man, but instead, he had just found the two talking calmly. That was something that he didn't understand.

Matt sighed. "Takato... I realize that it is not the same Wily that trapped my soul in this body... but he did that to you, instead. How can you treat that man like a friend or a normal acquaintance after that? After what he did I thought you would hate him. I heard he even kidnapped a friend of yours before you could break his hold on you... so, what gives?"

Takato remained silent for a moment, then with a sigh stood up and walked to the window he had been starting at before.

"There's more to this then it seems Matt, more then you would ever understand… if you want… I can tell you a certain things that might explain it… but it starts long before my time," Takato whispered, but he knew Matt heard it.

Matt shook his head. "Listen, Takato, I would like to understand a little. Doctor Wily is coming tomorrow. That man made me, Zero, with the only objective of destroying Dr. Light's greatest achievement... X."

He could see the surprise in Takato's eyes. After all, this was new to him.

"I woke up in the future a berserker, with no memories of who or what I was, least of all my true self... until I was helped by a few Reploids which were thankfully powerful enough to survive me. After that... X awoke and we became brothers for all intents and purposes. It was a long and hard job to become who I am today, and the lives of hundreds of Reploids have ended with my hands they may have been Mavericks, a term we use for Reploids that have gone berserk, but they were sentient beings and alive. When Gabumon found me, I finally was able to remember who I really was, and realized that I could never be that innocent boy again... all because of Wily. So, yeah, I want to hear another reason besides him not being from my universe not to tear him apart."

Takato stared at Matt, he was surprised at much of what the other robotic teen said, but it explained much. He closed his eyes briefly, now he had remembered where he had heard the term Zero before. His grandfather was building him, a few months before he had gained freedom he had seen a few files about a new robot… labeled project Zero.

He had to hide a small sad smile, in a way they were brothers… but it was probably best if he didn't mention it.

"There are reasons, but first Matt… what do you know of Wily's family?" he asked, he turned to stare silently at the blond.

Matt frowned. "Nothing much." he admitted, "In my world, Wily ended up being a decrepit creature kept alive hundreds of years into the future with the help of machines... as far as I know his only family would have been his creations."

"Hmm… definitely different... lets just say that this Wily has a tad bit of a different past," Takato said, he motioned for matt to sit down who decided to lean against the wall. Takato turned to look back out the window.

"Years ago, Wily married a gentle woman of amazing intelligence... her name was Himiko. They lived happily as they pursued there scientific studies, then one day to there joy Himiko found herself with child," Takato said, he paused for a moment.

"A daughter was born, they named her Mai… they lived happily until Himiko died of cancer. He was devastated: and immersed himself into all science, his heart was broken. Meanwhile Mai, who lived with her Father, grew up loved, even if her father's attention was mostly in the lab," he said softly, he began to get to the nearer times then that.

"When she was nineteen she met and married a young man named Takishi… is fact Wily didn't find out about the marriage for two years since by then he had grown to obsessed with science to notice the world around him. But he let them go in piece, a while later Mai and Takishi had a son... a son named Takato.,"

"By then they ran a bakery, Takato grew up like any child loved and happy… and his grandfather even came a visited all the time… Takato's life was happy even with a few interesting adventures in his life," Takato said, he smiled fondly at that... those adventures were those connected to Digimon.

"Then tragedy happened, a explosion and fire happened in the bakery, something wrong with a stove. Mai and Takishi died instantly, their son wasn't so lucky. Wily was in grief, he was about to loose his last living descendent, one who he cherished… one he would do anything to keep alive," he whispered, he bit his lips at the dark memories.

"Wily stole his grandson from the hospital, and he found a way to transfer the soul, memories… everything to something else… and Protoman was born… controlled by so many programs he wouldn't be able to escape for many years to come."

"How can I hate him," Takato finally said, he only hoped Matt wouldn't reject him for the fact Wily was his grandfather.

Matt sighed and looked up at the roof, trying to think of an answer. Finally, with another sigh, he looked down at Takato. "I guess you can't, at that." he said. "it is so different, though. In my case, he wanted to do it for a weapon... in your case he did it to save your life... in a way. I think you got the better Wily out of the two."

He straightened up and walked to the door. "I hope your trust in him is justified, Takato..." he smiled, "At least meeting him might help Jessie a little."

"At this time and place its justified, what the future brings will be another story," Takato said in a far off voice, his eyes seemed to look at something beyond what anyone else saw. He then shook his head, what a strange thought and he wondered where it had come from.

"Is something wrong with Jesse, she seems to be fighting something inside her… she fears it?" Takato asked as Matt reached the door, he had seen it in her eyes so clearly.

Matt looked over his shoulder at Takato. "She almost blew Wily's head up. A friend stopped her, but if he hadn't been there..." he sighed. "I... hope she's alright. She CAN kill humans. There's no Laws of robotics for her." he said, then looked at Takato in the eye. "We have it easy, we were humans before; we have an instinctive value of human life... she... she has to control herself, and I see her struggling more with that control every day. If meeting and talking to Wily might help her deal with the guilt she felt that she actually would have killed him in my world, then, I cannot hate this Wily either..." he turned around and walked out, leaving a parting comment. "I love her more than life."

Takato smiled softly, he understood.

"She's more human then you think Matt, grief, fear…anger… its makes us human… she's human. If not born one, her soul is one. Let her learn of this Wily, she must learn to live with her darkness… we all do… even I must learn to control my darkness," he said, then, he grinned darkly.

He had understood darkness and hate all too well even before he became Protoman, Leomon's death and Megidramon birth… his darkness… powerful enough to destroy a world in truth.

His eyes gleamed darkly at those memories, then the gleam and grin vanished as he came back to his normal self.

"Love makes us human," he whispered.

VvVvV

Zero gave her a bittersweet smile and shouldering Masamune, he turned his back to her and took a step to the flowing blue energy of the River of Souls.

"Zero!" she cried, trying to break free from Weregarurmon's arms. "Zero!"

Her beloved stepped in the middle of the stream, which looked more like an inverted waterfall, where the water flowed up and not down and, swinging the huge katana, impaled it on the middle of the crescent moon symbol on the solid rock where it originated. The stream turned from blue to a furious red, obscuring him from sight. It was then that Weregarurumon gasped and let her go, devolving back to Gabumon and falling down unconscious. She stared in horror as the Digimon started to dissolve.

"Gabumon!" she cried, and heard an echo. Looking up, she saw Robinmon gliding down to her.

"Robinmon!" she shouted. "We have to save Zero! It's the only way!"

Robinmon nodded and she felt something stirring within her. Light blinded her and she felt powerful. More powerful than she had ever dreamt. In a flurry of black and red feathers she sped into the River of Souls and watched as the surface reflected her new appearance. Suddenly, it wasn't her reflection! As she crashed into the energy, she could only think one thing. One name. Protoman? Or was it Guilmon?

Jessie woke up with a sudden start, confused for a moment. She slowly relaxed, but wondered about her dream. She had seen Protoman reflected on the raging stream of life, just like she had seen her own image as she had crashed in and rescued Zero so long ago, but, at one point, she had seen not Protoman, but a red dinosaur of some kind.

She rested her head on the pillow and kept on thinking.

VvVvV

"Okayyy… it's been awhile since this type of thing has happened," Takato said, at the moment he was dreaming. But this dream, as definitely not a normal one.

These dreams usually showed him the past, present and even the future sometimes… usually just what was happening at that moment. These were rare dreams; they had stopped when he had become Protoman.

Yet… here it was, he hadn't thought robots could have dreams like this.

'Where is this dream happening… is it the present?' he thought, but no answer came to him. Looking around, he realized he was in a carnival mirror house… yet all the mirrors glowed strangely.

He frowned, this was even stranger then the dream he had years ago… the one with Rika.

'At least this time I'm not a transparent ghost that floats' he thought with a bit of humor.

With that is mind; he stepped forward and peered into the nearest mirror. He quickly stepped back horrified, he had only seen death and carnage.

"Not that one Takatomon, this one," a voice said and he smiled; it was Guilmon's voice. It came from inside of him, from a part of his soul, the part of him that had been Guilmon.

Takato turned, and reached for the mirror Guilmon was directing him towards. The world blurred, and he found himself peering elsewhere.

"Jesse," he said as he recognized the first person, she was armored up though. Robinmon was beside her, his eyes widened as they fused. Not Bio-merged like the Tamers, but fused.

Suddenly the dream changed, Jessie in normal clothing was sitting on the ground hugging herself. Tears slipped down her face; a darkness swirled around her… tried to control her heart.

"What does it mean?" Takato questioned, it was then that he felt something behind him. He spun around to see silver mist, his eyes widened as he could see the mist outline an armored form with angelic wings.

It was so hard to see, most of it hidden by the mist.

"Who are you, what does this dream mean!" he demanded. Suddenly he could see one feature of the unknown person, golden eyes that seemed to stare right into his soul.

"Teach her to live, protect her from her darkness… she will need your support for a coming battle. Matt; cannot help her with what he doesn't understand, you must help her while you have the chance… when they leave she'll need what she learns," the figure whispered, it was a child's voice yet filled with so much more.

The dream started to fade away.

"Wait! You didn't tell me who you are!" Takato yelled; the figure chuckled.

"You'll know when the time comes, till then… call me Silver," the figure said.

VvVvV

Takato woke from sleep mode with a start; looking at the time he realized with a start that he had only been asleep for ten minutes.

'How was that possible… what does the dream mean?' he thought confused.

Five minutes later he slipped from the house to think it over in private, he even ignored a certain figure watching over the house… he already knew who it was anyway.

VvVvV

Morning found Zero standing on the top of a building next to Gabumon, both looking down at the city bellow.

"So, Takato is bringing Digidestined from this world to help?" Gabumon asked, scratching the back of his head.

Zero nodded. "Apparently."

"And do you think they will be good enough to stop that other Zero?" Gabumon asked.

"Nope."

Gabumon blink-blinked.

"I hope, that with their help we might have enough fire power together to get rid of him or at least control him." Zero explained. "He might still be under the influence of the Maverick Virus."

"Ah." Gabumon nodded, looking to the distance at the rising sun and stifling a yawn. "And why did we stay awake all night?"

Zero smiled and patted his friend's head. "To protect the others." he said simply

Back at Dr. Light's house, another Digimon opened her eyes slowly.

VvVvV

Robinmon had been snuggling in Jessie's arms. Apparently, the Reploid had used her for a teddy bear and had hugged her for comfort. Normally, Robinmon would have been very annoyed, but the little noises and murmurs and most importantly the tears in the sleeping girls face had stayed her usual reaction.

At some point though, she had fallen asleep and had hugged Jessie back.

That was what irked her. It shouldn't happen. She didn't want to get to close to Jessie again... specially after sharing memories and -shudder- bodies for a while. She had glimpsed into her former hero's heart and found one much like her own. Robinmon regarded the girl as she moaned and started to wake.

Jessie would never see Robinmon worrying for her. Robinmon was too proud to show it openly, and Jessie would be treated as a distant friend by the Digimon most of the time. The real feelings of kinship, of sisterhood and of hearts that had beaten together once would never filter into their actual relationship. Robinmon was glad that Jessie remembered so little about their "fusion".

She didn't know how she would handle things otherwise.

As Jessie woke, Robinmon struggled to get free, startling the girl, who let her go suddenly, in surprise.

"Geez!" Robinmon complained, looking angrily at Jessie. "What do you think I am? A teddy bear!" she complained, wishing with all her heart that she could just grab a pillow and start a fight with the phrase "sisters are not teddy bears!"

Jessie shook her head apologetically and stood up. "Sorry, Robinmon... I was having a weird dream... let me get a shower..."

Robinmon watched her leave the room and sat back down, sighing and silently cursed herself. And Jessie for not remembering.

In another part of the house Rock was slowly coming out of sleep mode, he could hear Light, Roll and Rush slowly moving about.

Yet, one room was silent of its usual sounds. Curious he got up; he then walked out of his room and down the hall.

He knocked on a certain door.

"Takato, its morning," Rock said, he knocked again but to his surprise the door opened.

"Takato…" he questioned sticking his head in, but the room was empty and Rock had a feeling no one had slept in it that night,

"Oh Takato," he whispered, noticing the empty bed.

Takato had been in a certain park thinking many things over…

Takato sighed knowing he must go back, he had recharged enough, hopefully… nothing else would happen today… other then the stressful meeting later today between Wily and Light and the Tamers coming.

"If robots could get headaches, I would have one just about now," he said; then with his scarf fluttering behind him he headed home.

VvVvV

As Zero transformed back into Matt, he started walking back to Dr. Light's place. He had noticed Takato leaving the house after their little talk, but had decided to respect the younger robot's space and let him walk away. He could take care of himself and Zero would protect Light and the others in his absence.

He noticed Takato as he walked back and stopped to wait for him just outside the house.

Gabumon looked at Takato and waved at him.

"Hi," Takato said as he got up to the pair, he sighed and looked up at the sky. It was sunny, but a hint of rain was in the air… again. He wondered if he should tell Matt about the asteroid that would hit earth in several months, but he decided not too... he knew Matt would be gone by that point… and if they failed to destroy it…Matt wouldn't have to grieve over more deaths.

Matt patted Takato's shoulder. Since their last talk he knew he could trust him. He had heard part of his comment about humanity and his heart had been relieved. Takato understood. And so, now Matt smiled, feeling like an older brother yet again, and wondering if that was how he should feel. After all... he wasn't even born yet here!

"So, ready for our war meeting?"

"I wish, I can see the chaos already… "Takato muttered darkly, he could already see Rika in his mind chasing after Wily for everything... and Henry trying to calm everyone down… and Ryo… if he was there acting super cool. Which, by now Takato realized he really wasn't.

'Hmm… I wonder if Impmon and his tamers will be able to make it' he thought, it had been a long time since he had seen the rookie virus… and Impmon and been a close friend of both Guilmon and himself. He had a feeling, that if Guilmon had never become his partner and Impmon hadn't gotten the twins they might have become partners.

Matt smiled. "Well, we still have a couple of hours, don't worry too much, you'll get white hair."

Gabumon was in awe. "Really? Reploids can get white hair?" he looked from Takato to Matt.

"..." Matt said.

Hearing what Gabumon said Takato broke out laughing, he laughed very hard… he hadn't laughed like this in a very long time.

"White hair… robots or Reploids getting white hair… " he said between laughs. Because he didn't actually have to breath he didn't stop, not even to take a break.

Laughing a little himself and shaking his head, Matt motioned to the confused Digimon and the laughing robot to carry on. He waited until they were inside, with Takato still laughing and drawing the attention of everyone in the house, and then, with a last look at the clear blue sky, he followed them in.

VvVvV

He hadn't expected a strong resistance, but he would have his revenge. Breaking into the laboratory had been easy. Killing the humans there was easier still. Now he had the equipment to take care of the distractions and destroy his hated foe. He started typing on the computers, laughing evilly and disturbingly... laughing very hard... and he hadn't laughed like that in a very long time...

VvVvV

By the time noon came to, Takato had finally stopped laughing. But he would grin widely every time he looked at Gabumon, who was a bit embarrassed by now. He didn't know what had made that question so funny, maybe because Gabumon had asked it so innocently and didn't know robots and probably reploids either couldn't get white hair.

At that moment he heard the doorbell ring, it was promptly noon… he only knew one person who would be here at noon exactly.

"Welcome to my lair, said the spider to the fly," Takato said in a creepy voice as he opened the door, Henry and Terriermon sweatdropped.

"Takato, must you?" Henry asked.

"Hmm… let me think… it's a definite yes," Takato said after taking a thinking pose, Henry sighed while his partner snickered.

"Never mind, Rika and the others should be here soon," Henry said walking in, Takato grinned closing the door and enjoyed Henrys strange look at seeing Matt and Gabumon.

'And no one has told our visitors about the cartoon yet' he thought amused.

At that moment the doorbell rang again, he opened it to see a certain tomboy along with the rest of the tamers… the only tamer Digimon not in view was Renamon… but he felt she was near.

"Thanks for coming, now we just have to wait for our last guest to get here," Takato said closing the door, to his disappointment Impmon and his tamers weren't there… maybe they might show up later.

"Where's the chow?" Terriermon asked, everyone sighed.

Matt looked with a certain amount of interest at the group of youngsters as they walked in, assessing them and their probable battle experience. The redhead with the transparent fox-like Digimon, the Chinese guy with the Terriermon and the guy with the black shirt and the rookie thing-a-mon following him around were the most battle hardened of the group.

He decided to break the ice first when they all noticed him and Gabumon. "So," he said to the redhead "I take it your fox Digimon can materialize or does she stay invisible all the time?"

Rika sniffed and gave the blond a look that many mega Digimon had run from, she had been known as the Digimon or ice queen for a reason… only one had she let close to her.

Takato

"Look blond boy, it's my business and my business alone," Rika said with a glare, from long experience the tamers knew her moods… they backed away quickly in case of a fight or yelling match… even Takato backed away with a sweatdrop.

Matt smirked. An attitude. He liked her already. "Fair enough." He said cool as ice, locking eyes with her that left clear that she had his respect but that he was far from intimidated.

Gabumon was looking around curiously. "Hey, Matt, which Fox Digimon? I don't see anyone!"

Matt patted Gabumon's head. "Don't worry about it, Gabumon, I'm sure it'll appear whenever the time is right." He then turned to the Chinese guy, ignoring the red head and nodded. "Hey, you must be Henry. Nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, this is Terriermon my partner," Henry said politely.

"Momentai, you should have introduced me first Henry… I had such a cool introduction," Terriermon complained, Henry only sighed and shook his head slightly… he was use to this only too well.

"Ryo Asakura, but just call me Ryo… and this is my partner Monodramon." Ryo said doing his best smile, it had charmed many people in the past…and he was still known as the Digimon King.

"Hi," Monodramon said.

Matt nodded. "Nice to meet you two." he smirked. "Hope you guys are ready for a good fight." he said motioning for the rest to come into the room. "We are just waiting for a couple of more people before letting you know the details."

"Hopefully there won't be too much fighting," Henry said thoughtfully.

"A battle, its been awhile," Ryo said shuffle a few cards.

"Heh, I'm always ready for a fight," Rika smirked.

"And I will be by your side," Renamon said appearing next to her tamer.

Gabumon stared at Renamon. "Wow, so you are the fox Digimon Matt was talking about."

Matt looked at Renamon and arched an eyebrow. "Cute trick."

"…" Renamon replied.

"Are we done with the witty remarks, our last guest should be here soon," Takato asked raising his left eyebrow.

Matt's mood darkened a little. "True." he sighed. "I'll tell Jessie everyone else but our special guest is here..." he activated the small watch-like communicator he, X and Peregrine still used from their Maverick Hunter days and spoke. "Hey, War Meeting is soon." he said.

A second later everyone could hear a female voice responding in a very business-like tone. "Yes, sir. Be right there."

Matt bigsweated. "Uh, roger that, BP, remember we're with civilians now..."

Takato sighed, at that moment the doorbell rang… he knew who it was…

He walked to the door and opened it, he stared silently at the man standing there.

"Come on in Wily, were all here now," Takato said, Wily walked in and Takato led him to where the others were.

"Were all here now," he said.

Matt didn't looks straight at Wily, rather concentrating on the chair letting everyone react first. He had to close his eyes and breathe in slowly as anger rose automatically. The coke can he had been holding was crumpled to a slim piece of aluminum alloy in his hand. Thankfully, almost everyone's attention was concentrated on the infamous doctor. Two people noticed him, however.

Redhead and her Digimon took in his reaction without comment before a familiar anger rose in the girl's face as she faced Dr. Wily. She looked at Dr. Wily with a mixture of horror and apologetic shyness and squeezed Matt's shoulder to help him start to talk.

Jessie walked down the stairs with Robinmon at her side, noticing everyone in the room; she nodded at them and marched over to Matt, placing her hand on his shoulder.

Matt sighed, took a deep breath and all hell broke loose as people started shouting, ignoring Dr. Light's and Megaman's attempts to calm down, Rika even attempted to jump at the Doctor again in all the confusion, almost forgetting that Takato was holding her.

"Enough!" Matt shouted, startling even the Ice Queen into silence. "I don't think you people understand the gravity of the situation." He growled. "If we were just going to have tea and cookies then, yes, we can party on as long as you like, but now, at this moment, you should pay attention to matters that might decide your future. Or lack of it, depending on your ability."

There was silence, for the moment.

"Dude, you so have to teach me that voice... I could so use it against Rika," Kazu said with a wide grin, next to him Kenta sighed.

"Then you better hide," Kenta said pointing, turning Kazu sweatdropped and ran, for Takato had let Rika go to chase after the visored boy.

Matt almost smiled, but sighed. He was dealing with kids. True, they had faced a local end-of-the-world situation and survived it, but from what he had gathered from Dr. Light and the internet, things could have escalated to a much worse scenario that they hadn't even contemplated.

"I think the best way to start is with a little help from Dr. Wily." Matt said, turning to look at the old scientist with a strange look. "Doctor, why don't you tell us a little about the power levels of Project Zero? That might help put things on perspective."

When he noticed Dr. Wily's look of utter shock, he continued. "And don't give me that 'I don't know what you're talking' about bull. I know more than enough, but I'm not the problem. These kids are. They need to know just how powerful your version is to get an idea of what I am about to tell them."

"Project Zero… is actually only in the planning points at this mark, he was actually being built… not actually to fight Megaman or Lights future Robots… but another reason," Wily said quietly, Takato looked up startled and his eyes widened.

'He was building it for me' he thought startled, he knew it was the truth. He knew his body wasn't perfect, and he knew it was only time before this body couldn't be upgraded anymore, as it was he knew that his body wouldn't be able to stand the stress of many more upgrades.

Wily looked at him from the corner of his eyes, Takato nodded and Wily nodded just slightly… Takato knew he was telling the truth.

"Project Zero I planned to be powered by a special crystal core and something special, but sadly there is only one way to get hold of the second artifact and I'm not about to just take it. Zero has the same self-repair program as Protoman but more powerful, also the ability to adapt to any situation… he's a damn army in himself," Wily said.

Matt sighed, again reminding himself that this Wily was not the same from his world. He had not missed the subterfuge between Takato and Wily. He decided to treat this world's Wily with grudging respect. "Right, and you all know how powerful Protoman is, right?" he asked everyone.

Well duh," Terriermon said, he sent Takato a glare remembering how strong Protoman had been when he kidnapped Henry. Takato saw the look and turned away, he began to whistle innocently.

"He can rip mega level Digimon in half with his hands, I get the picture," Rika replied.

"Only in my armored state," Takato protested, the tamers all sent him looks. "Okkaayyy… so maybe that's a lie," he muttered.

"The point I am trying to make is this: recently we detected energy jumps that indicated either a time-traveler or dimension-hopping. We didn't know what caused it until he attacked both Protoman and Wily." Matt explained. "The one who attacked them was Zero."

"This would give me a headache if I didn't understand it all, also the fact I'm a robot," Takato said cheerfully.

"Takato, what's a headache?" Rock asked, Takato groaned and hid his face with his hands…not these questions again.

Matt was starting to sweat. Why had he ever quit MH HQ? WHY? At least their people would...

Jessie put her hands on Matt's shoulder in a tranquilizing motion. "If it were just Zero we could take care of it, the problem is that this alternate Zero somehow managed to absorb the most powerful Reploid in the world and became much more powerful than even we alone can manage."

Rika snorted at the implied ability of Matt and Jesse. Takato rolled his eyes, anyone see conflict among the ranks? Yeah he thought so too.

Matt sighed. "Well, I knew it would come down to this, I just had hoped we could have done this in a calmer manner..." he stood up and stepped back a little, sharing a look and a nod with Jessie.

A sudden burst of light surprised the tamers, and they watched in surprise and a little confusion as from head to toe Matt's rust-red armor began materializing slowly until he was completely covered in it, the blue gem in the helm's front shine for a moment, letting some of them see a W split in half inside before it became a gem.

Jessie's light slowly became dark as black swirls of energy slowly created her black armor as her metallic wings grew. Her helm was made to resemble a Hawk's or an Eagle's head and it covered most of her face. Where the two teens had stood now stood two aggressive looking robots almost no-one had seen before. Matt smirked at Wily. "Why, hello Doctor."

A blink-blink followed.

"So cool, where can I get armor like that!" Kazu yelled.

"Um… I think you have to be a robot first," Kenta replied, Kazu whined.

"Hmm… so this explains a lot…" Wily said, he cast a glance at Takato.

"Takato, isn't his armor grand… now if only I could give you some of his upgrades," Wily said cheerfully, the same way in fact Takato usually asked if he was about to get a cool upgrade or getting new weapons.

"Eh… he doesn't have a cool shield, why didn't you design him with a shield," Takato complained, by now the whole group was staring at the two talking strangely with wide-eyed looks.

"I'll add it later on, after we destroy the evil Zero," Wily promised, Takato gave a thumbs-up.

The Tamers could only sweatdrop.

Matt flinched. "Just make sure the shield is strong enough to... what am I saying!" he growled. "Since everyone here fails to see what is happening, let me explain. This "Evil Zero", is trying to kill either of you." he said pointing to Takato and Wily, "Or both. If he behaves like most other baddies he is going to have a few Robot Masters under his wing to destroy us all and all of them strong enough to tear Digimon up to Mega Level apart with their bare hands. Now, Takato assures me that you," he said turning to face the rest of the Tamers, "Are strong enough as a team to perhaps survive a couple of battles, but let me warn you, these guys will not stop trying to kill you and your Digimon just because you left the immediate area, like what happened last time. Am I getting through? If you guys are not going to take this seriously I want you out. We can expect chaos and destruction as soon as Evil Zero decides to start this one officially, maybe even deaths. Are you or are you not going to take this seriously!" Zero was breathing heavily now.

Takato sighed and looked at Zero, a dark look in his eyes… a serious one... a look one rarely saw in his eyes.

"We understand all too well Zero, but you have to understand this isn't a military group of any type. We will act silly now and then, that's what keeps us sane when times like this comes up, tell me… what breaks faster. Something to ridged to understand emotions, or something flexible that can," Takato whispered.

"Yeah, you should listen to Takato… he use to be our leader with Gui… mmph," Terriermon was stopped from saying anymore, by Henry closing his mouth.

Takato stared at Terriermon and anger and pain flashed over his face, then before anyone could say anything he was just gone… gone so fast it was like he teleported.

"Terriermon… you know not to mention that," Henry growled.

"Sorry," Terriermon replied, knowing that he had gone way too far, especially in reminding Takato of Guilmon.

Zero sighed. "Listen, where I originally come from, yes, we have meetings like these. All happy, exchanging witty remarks, heck attitudes." he glanced pointedly at Rika. "And that is all well and good. Takato is right, flexible doesn't break, but it can be torn off from where it stands if it cannot hold on to the ground." He patted BP's shoulder. "Now, Peregrine will tell you what we have on information about Evil Zero and possible tactics." Peregrine winced, feeling now like a teacher trying to show a group of kindergartner's how to tie their shoes.

When he saw a couple of them sigh, Zero shook his head.

"What you do with that information when the time comes is your prerogative." Zero stated, looking at them with a little compassion. "I have seen way to many people die because they didn't know what was happening for that to happen here with you guys. So please pay attention. I will bring Takato back." he stated.

He looked down at Gabumon. "You should stay here... I think I'm beginning to get an idea of what is happening." He told the Digimon.

Gabumon nodded. "Sure, Matt. I just hope he's alright."

Zero nodded and left almost as fast as Takato.

TBC-

Well, here's another chapter, I would have updated forever ago… but WandererD has seemed to vanish into real life for now… I'll try to drag him back to writing soon…

ja ne


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